The Quirkless Hero
by QuirklessIzuku
Summary: Izuku Midoriya lives in a world were 80% of the population has a superpower known as a quirk, Izuku, unfortunately, does not. Follow his journey as he defies expectations and surpasses the limitations others have placed on him to become the worlds first quirkless hero.
1. Origin

Izuku Midoriya learned a harsh lesson at the age of 4, after finding his friend Katsuki Bakugo (Kacchan) looming over another child who was lying on the floor crying stood between the victim and Kacchan shaking in fear before stating, "Stop it Kacchan, He's already crying."

"So Deku the quirkless wonder thinks he can play hero, huh?" Kacchan sneers while creating an explosion in his hands before he and his two lackeys rushed at him pinning him down in a flurry of punches and kicks. Meanwhile, the earlier victim of Kacchan's bullying got up and ran away, not even looking back to the boy who became his human shield.

That day Izuku learned that not all men are created equal and Kacchan was no longer his friend.

**/ 10 Years Later /**

Izuku is sat with his head down making notes in his 'Hero Analysis for my Future No.13' notebook when his teacher comes in saying, "Now that you're all third years its time to start thinking seriously about your futures, but who am I kidding, you're all aiming for the hero course right?"

Everyone except for Izuku and Bakugo begins displaying their quirks and shouting about how they're all going to become heroes until Bakugo silences them by leaping onto his desk and exclaiming "You'll all be lucky to make it as a D-List Heroes sidekick, whereas I'm going to be the next number, one hero. I'm going to surpass All Might and be the richest, most famous hero."

"That's right Bakugo, you're aiming for U.A. right?" states the teacher, without a sliver of emotion in his voice. The other students are then in another uproar about how U.A. is almost impossible to get into and that you have to have a powerful quirk to get in.

"Oh yeah, Midoryia, aren't you also applying for U.A?" Interjects the teacher, essentially feeding Izuku to the wolves. The whole class then burst out laughing and one student says, "You can't get in you're quirkless."

Midoryia then defends himself saying "There's no rule stopping me from applying-"

"Deku! You're worse than the rest of these extras, you're quirkless. You think you can compete with me!?" Bakugo exclaims while firing off an explosion on Izuku's desk causing him to fall backwards out of his chair and onto the floor. He then looms menacingly over Izuku causing him to scramble backwards till his back hit the wall.

"No. I'm not trying to compete with you, I've just wanted to be a hero since I was little and there's no harm in trying, right?" stuttered out Izuku as he began to pull himself off the floor.

"TRY! You're taking the entrance exam just to try? What can you even do?" Bakugo yells as he throws a fist into Izuku's stomach causing him to slump back down to the floor in pain. 

After class ended Izuku was quickly packing up his things when Bakugo grabbed his hero notebook saying, "We aren't done here Deku." He then looked at the cover, "Hero analysis for my future? Seriously Deku, writing notes isn't going to make up for you being useless."

"Come on Katsuki, please give it back," Izuku began to beg, hoping to just end this awful day until smoke began to pour from Bakugo's hands as he burnt the book before throwing it out the window.

"All the best heroes showed signs of greatness even as students, that's why I'm going to be the only one from this shitty middle school to get into U.A, just call me a perfectionist," Bakugo then placed his hand on Izuku's shoulder adding more and more pressure while slowly burning him through his uniform. "In other words, don't you dare get into U.A."

Bakugo then started to walk out the door leaving behind Izuku with tears slowly forming in his eyes, "If you want to be a hero so bad I've got a time-saving idea for you," Bakugo said with an evil smirk on his face "If you think you'll get a quirk in your next life... go take a swan dive of the roof." 

As Izuku was fishing his burnt notebook out of a coy pond it landed in he had a flashback to the night after he was diagnosed quirkless, he was 4 years old watching a video of All Might's debut when he turned his chair around to face his mother with tears streaming down his cheeks before asking, "No matter how bad it is he's always saving people with a smile on his face, can I be hero like him, Can I Mum?"

"I'm sorry Izuku, I'm so sorry," Inko whispered softly while clutching her bawling child knowing how the world has just destroyed his dreams. Unfortunately, that wasn't what he wanted to hear, what he needed to hear. 

When Izuku came out of his flashback he was in a tunnel about halfway to his house, when he had the thought that Bakugo was right about one thing, at the moment he wasn't going to pass the U.A. exam, I need to up my training. If I increase my strength training I should be able to finish cleaning Dagoba Municipal Beach by the entrance exam. A Sudden **Klang** shocked Izuku out of his mental planning, looking down he noticed a man-hole cover to his right. He quickly spins around to face a towering pile of sentient sludge who simply said "A medium-sized body to hide in. I should be able to escape that bastard with you," as he lunged towards Izuku.

Thinking quickly Izuku ducked under a couple of slime tentacles about to grab him while lifting the man-hole cover as a make-shift shield and blocking another tentacle. The sludge villain then reared back ready to engulf Izuku and get this fight over with when Izuku flung the sewer cover straight at the villain's face, figuring it was the only solid part of his body. This enraged the Sludge villain further but before he could lunge again at the now shield-less Izuku a powerful gust of wind flew down the tunnel blowing the villain to pieces and making Izuku cover his eyes and fall backwards onto the floor.

When Izuku regained his bearings he was face to face with All Might asking, "Are you okay? My apologies, for getting you caught up with that villain. Who knew the sewers were so hard to navigate." All Might then held up a bottle now containing the sludge villain and began making his way towards the exit of the tunnel ready to leap away, "Anyway since you're fine I need to get going and get this villain to the police."

"WAIT!" Izuku shouted, "I'm sorry I just need to ask you this, ever since I was little I've wanted to be a hero like you and save everyone with a smile on my face. So I just wanted to know, can someone quirkless like me be a hero like you?" He then looked up with determination gleaming in his emerald eyes to see All Might no longer smiling.

"I'm sorry but no, I don't think you can be a hero without a quirk, it's just too dangerous. Its good to have dreams kid, but you've got to make them realistic. If you really want to help people you could always be a police officer or firefighter." All Might then leapt into the sky with a small amount of blood trickling out his mouth. "Glad I got away before he saw me change forms."

Meanwhile, Izuku was left in the tunnel with the earth-shattering realisation that no one, not even All Might believes he can be a hero. He then began his slow walk home, as he reached his apartment complex he made a decision; no one believes in him, no one thinks he can be a hero, then he will just have to prove them wrong. He will be a hero, the first quirkless hero and he's starting at U.A. and he has 10 months left to train.


	2. Entrance Exam

10 months have passed since Izuku met All Might and he's just as determined now as he was that night. He's grown in the last 10 months and now stands at about 180cm tall and has gained quite a lot of muscle from cleaning Dagoba Beach and doing some self-defence training. He's by no means a martial arts master but can at least handle himself in a fight.

Izuku is currently staring up at the main campus building of U.A. mumbling about how much bigger it looks in person and doesn't notice the blond boy holding out his foot ready to trip him until he's already falling. He manages to catch himself in a push-up position but feels everyone's eyes on him when Bakugo starts to shout, "DEKU! You quirkless loser, I thought I told you not to bother applying to U.A." Bakugo then starts to walk away towards the exam leaving Izuku on the floor, "Not that it matters anyway, there's no way they would let in someone as useless as you."

As Izuku picked himself off the floor he heard a soft voice behind him say, "Hey, are you alright?" he turned to see a girl with large brown eyes and a brown bob cut looking up at him as she was about eye level with his chin.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Thank you. Katsuki's always like that." Izuku states, " I'm Izuku Midoriya by the way."

"Ochako Uraraka, you're here for the exam too right? We should get going, we don't want to be late. It was nice to meet you." Uraraka then runs off with a slightly darker blush than normal. Izuku quickly follows after her, also not wanting to be late.

When he got into the auditorium for the explanation of the physical exam he had to ignore some of the sniggering and whispering about the quirkless boy who fell outside. He then found his seat next to Bakugo who just stared daggers at him and huffed in annoyance. 

Present Mic then began explaining about the exam and the One, Two and Three point robots that gain you the corresponding amount of points until he was interrupted by a muscular teen with dark blue hair and as stiff posture who questioned the lack of information about the fourth kind of villain before turning to face directly at Izuku and saying, "And you there with the messy hair, stop mumbling if you're not going to take the exam seriously please leave."

Izuku then spoke up stating "I'm just trying to analyse the test and mumbling helps me concentrate. Also, you just interrupted the whole exam explanation to ask about something that Present Mic was about to talk about so if anyone is distracting the other examines it's you."

Both students then sat back down allowing Present Mic to continue with his presentation explaining that the fourth robot is worth Zero points and should just be avoided. 

Izuku was now stood outside Test side B in a crowd of students some of which were still questioning whether he had a quirk or was indeed quirkless and if so if he was suicidal or an idiot. He chose to ignore these people in favour of walking up to Uraraka who he had just spotted. He flashed her a bright smile before saying, "Good luck with the exam."

She was about to reply when the huge concrete doors to the examination site began to open and Izuku bolted away from her. All the other examines were frozen in shock until Present Mic yelled, "What are you waiting for, RUN! There's no countdown in a real battle." This spurred everyone into action as they raced to catch up with Izuku who was now facing down against a Two pointer robot which was scorpion-esque in design. He started by leaping over its claws when it lunged for an attack and landed on its back and began ripping out wires from the back of its head and neck causing it to collapse with no power.

He continued into the mock city and was immediately targeted by a Three pointer, Izuku began running away from it and led it to a large gathering of other robots. When the Three pointer fired its missiles Izuku jumped to the side causing the missiles to fly into the other gathered robots blowing them up leaving piles of scrap metal. Izuku then grabbed a large piece of scrap metal triangular in shape and leapt onto the original Three pointer stabbing the metal through its hull causing it to shut down. Izuku then made his way to the main road of the faux city mentally adding up his points to a total of nineteen.

He then overheard others calling out their totals, Uraraka had 28 from touching the robots and causing them to fall and explode on contact, the Blue haired boy from earlier had 42 from using high-speed kicks from his engine quirk. Izuku panicked at this and began destroying robots as quick as he could using scrap metal as makeshift weapons. Once he had destroyed a few more robots he stood upon the remains of a Three pointer panting adding up his total again to have 31 points when he felt the ground rumble and vibrate. When he got back to the main street he saw a towering monster of metal with eight glowing red eyes, other examines began running past him away from the robot and Izuku was about to follow until his eyes locked onto a girl stuck under rubble in front of the Zero pointer.

Before he even had a chance to think he was already bolting his way down the street towards the robot making the other examines think that he's crazy. When he got to the girl he noticed it was Uraraka, he squatted down and began lifting the slab of concrete off of her leg. Once she had crawled out Izuku helped her up then spotted the giant hand of the Zero pointer coming down at them. In a split second decision, Izuku threw Uraraka as far as he could getting her out of the reach of the robot before putting up his arm to attempt to block his head from the hit.

The other potential heroes looked on in horror as the Zero pointer swatted Izuku away sending him flying through a wall as Present Mic announced the end of the exam. 30 seconds went by without anyone even daring to breath when they spotted movement from the hole caused by Izuku's body.

Emerging from said hole was Izuku, left arm visibly broken, right clutching his likely cracked ribs and blood staining his dark green hair from where he must of hit the wall. He slowly limped over to Uraraka and slumped down onto the floor next to her asking, "Hey, you alright? Sorry, I through you so hard but I didn't want you to get hit by that." He lightly gestures over to the now inactive Zero Pointer.

Meanwhile, all the hero hopefuls are questioning whether Izuku is quirkless or not, no one saw him use a quirk, most saying they saw him using parts of the robots to destroy others, but none of them could believe that a quirkless person could survive a hit like that and still walk. Recovery Girl slipped past the crowd just in time to hear Izuku's first instinct was to ask about the girl he saved rather than worry about his own injuries.

Both Izuku and Uraraka are healed, Izuku for his long list of injuries and Uraraka for her broken ankle from the concrete slab, and were dismissed along with the other examines.


	3. Quirk Assessment Test

During the exam, there were Pro Heroes / Teachers watching and discussing who to accept and how much potential the examines have. Amongst the Teachers was a skeletal man wearing a yellow pinstriped suit about four sizes too large with a mane of golden hair with two strands falling in front of his face. This man though was not engaging in the discussion but instead watching the teens with only one goal, find a worthy successor. That was until he spotted a familiar head of green hair attacking the faux villains with scrap metal.

It wasn't until the Zero pointer had been released that the other Heroes in the room noticed the same green haired boy. Vladd King asked, "What is that boy doing? There's no way he can take on the Zero pointer. He hasn't even shown his quirk yet."

"That's because he doesn't have one," Nezu stated in his far too chipper voice. "His application says he's quirkless."

"Then what's he doing? Is he trying to get himself killed?" the R-Rated hero Midnight asked alarmed at the quirkless boy's behaviour.

Eraserhead, the underground her then spoke up for the first time during the exam "No he's going to try and save the brown haired girl in front of the Zero pointer." They all then watched as Izuku successfully rescued Uraraka from the beneath the rubble and then threw her to safety once noticing the Zero pointer about to hit them. Recovery Girl then got informed of the hit and told to immediately go to help him.

Once determining that Izuku was okay and awarding him some rescue points for saving Uraraka, Eraserhead then said with 100% seriousness, "he got enough points to pass the exam and I want him in my class."

"Has the stoic Eraserhead finally found a student that he cares about?" asked Midnight in a joking manner.

"No, but he has potential." he firmly states. 

Two weeks later Izuku was in a state of panic trying to find the door to 1-A, he really didn't want to be late on the first day, his only hope was that Uraraka was in his class. She was nice and tried to help him even after hearing that he was quirkless, plus he thought she was cute, not that he expected her to like him.

When he finally found the door to his class he heard an argument between two people he really didn't want to interact with any more than he had to. When he opened the door the room fell silent and everyone turned to look at him. That silence was quickly broken by Bakugo screaming, "Deku you quirkless bastard! How the hell did you get here?"

Izuku replied, "The same way you did, I passed the entrance exam."

Before Bakugo could scream at him again Eraserhead walked through the door while taking off his yellow sleeping bag and stating with a monotone voice, "I'm Shota Aizawa, your homeroom teacher, now that you're all paying attention put these on and meet me on the test field." He then proceeded to pull out 20 P.E. uniforms in everyone's sizes and dropping them at the front of the class for the students to pick up. 

Outside on the test field, the class collected together in front Aizawa waiting for him to tell them what to do, "Now that you're all here, we're doing a quirk apprehension test. Bakugo since you got first in the entrance exam, throw this. You can do whatever you want just don't leave the circle."

Bakugo then walked up to the circle and threw the ball with the help of his explosion quirk whilst shouting "DIE!" causing the other students to question whether hes in the right class. As he was walking back to the group with a cocky smirk on his face Aizawa asked what his previous record was, as middle schools don't allow quirk usages in standardised tests, he responded with "67 meters."

Aizawa then showed his tablet displaying the distance from Bakugo's throw which read 705.2 meters. The students then got excited about the idea of using their quirks in the test some shouting about how much fun it's going to be until Aizawa interrupted them, "You're here to become heroes and you only have 3 years to do it. If you think it's going to be fun then you are sorely mistaken. So here's the deal, whoever comes last is going to be expelled."

Uraraka then spoke up saying, "That's not fair, it's only the first day you can't expel us."

Aizawa replied with a slight smirk saying, "Life's not fair, Villain and natural disasters that hurt innocent people aren't fair and as a hero, you're going to have to deal it. Also Izuku over there is quirkless, so he's already at a disadvantage and he's not complaining about what's fair." The whole class then looked over to Izuku who had a look of pure determination on his face, having decided that he is not being expelled today.

50 Meter Dash

To start the tests Tenya Iida, the blue-haired boy, and Tsuyu Asui, a girl with frog-like features, lined up and when the buzzer went off Iida sprinted using his engine quirk to get 3.04 seconds while Asui leapt through the air to the finish line getting a score of 5.58 seconds. Izuku was pitted up against Uraraka for their test and she touched all of her clothes before the race started to remove the extra weight. They then sprinted as fast as they could with Izuku getting 6.34 seconds while Uraraka got 7.15 seconds.

Grip Strength

The next test was grip strength where a boy with six arms managed to get 540.0 kg by using three hands at once gaining him first place, Izuku managed to get a respectable score beating out most people without some kind of strength enhancement quirk with a score of 65.5 kg.

Standing Long Jump

Izuku didn't fare too well on this test as most people had a method of clearing the sandbox, like a flamboyant blond boy who shot his Naval Laser backwards to propel himself forwards or Asui who just leapt as a frog would.

Repeated Side Steps

Izuku managed a slightly above average score on this exercise but everyone was crushed by the score of a very short boy who bounced back and forth between purple orbs that seem to be his hair.

Ball Throw

The next test was the ball throw that Bakugo had already demonstrated for everyone, Uraraka went up before Izuku shocking everyone when she scored and infinity by making it weightless and throwing it out of the atmosphere. Izuku stepped up to the plate and threw the ball as far as he could getting a score of 72 meters.

Distance Run

This was finally a test that Izuku could do well at, other than Momo Yaoyorozu, a tall girl with a spiky black ponytail, who created a bicycle with her quirk and Iida who's whole deal is running, Izuku was the last one running narrowly beating Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki, a boy with white and red hair and a burn scar on his left eye, 2 laps of the track.

Seated Toe-Touch

Izuku got an average score on this test as he hadn't really trained his flexibility at all but managed to beat out the more bulky members of the class.

Sit Ups

The final test was where Izuku really excelled, due to not having a quirk Izuku exclusively trained his body not having to split time between body and quirk meaning that Izuku managed to easily beat the majority of the class with only a few boys keeping pace with him, namely Iida, Bakugo, Todoroki and a red-headed boy called Eijiro Kirishima. Izuku really wanted a first place finish and since it was the last test he didn't need to save any strength for the next test so he went all out outlasting the other boys until it was just him and Kirishima continuing. then after another two minutes of just the two boys, the redhead collapsed onto his back and lying down while excitedly yelling about manliness. At this point, Izuku stopped but it was clear to everyone else that he could have gone a bit longer. 

After all the tests had been finished and the student caught their breath Aizawa addressed the class saying, "Reading out all the results would take to long and be irrational so I'll just show you all at once." He then displayed the results:

1st Momo Yaoyorozu

2nd Shoto Todoroki

3rd Katsuki Bakugo

4th Tenya Iida

5th Fumikage Tokoyami

6th Mezo Shoji

7th Eijiro Kirishima

8th Izuku Midoriya

9th Mashirao Ojiro

10th Mina Ashido

11th Tsuyu Asui

12th Ochako Uraraka

13th Koji Koda

14th Rikido Sato

15th Hanta Sero

16th Yuga Aoyama

17th Denki Kaminari

18th Kyoka Jiro

19th Toru Hagakure

20th Minoru Mineta

After seeing he was in last place Mineta started bawling and begging not to be expelled when Aizawa interrupted him stating, "By the way, no one is getting expelled, it was just a logical ruse to get you all to try you're hardest, Plus Ultra and all that. You're all dismissed, I'll see you tomorrow."


	4. Battle Training

As Izuku was walking out of school later that day Iida caught up to him saying, "hey Midoriya, I just wanted to apologise for questioning you at the entrance exam. You've clearly put in a lot# of work to be accepted to U.A. and you saw the true test of the exam when you saved Uraraka." While he was talking Izuku realised that he wasn't as scary or mean as he had initially thought but was in fact just super serious.

"Actually I didn't realise anything I just saved her because it was the right thing to do." As he was replying Izuku spotted Uraraka walking up to them and waved.

"Hey, are you guys walking to the station?" the boys then nodded, "Cool, do you want to walk together?"

As they were walking down the street to the train station Uraraka then asked, "hey Izuku, why did that blond boy call you Deku earlier? Is it a nickname or something?"

The smile then fell from Izuku's face as he explained Bakugo's name for him, "oh yeah Katsuki and I used to be childhood friends until he got his quirk and I didn't. He then started calling me Deku because it means useless."

"Oh I'm sorry," Uraraka replied looking a little guilty for bringing it up.

"It's okay, it's not your fault." They then continued on their way home talking about what lessons they have and which pro heroes are teaching them.

The next day after Present Mic's English class everyone is speculating about who's going to be teaching their next lesson 'Hero Basic Training' when the door suddenly slams open followed by a shout of "I am... coming through the door like a normal person!" All Might then appears in the doorway striking a flamboyant pose that is definitely not how a normal person comes through a door. Everyone then begins excitedly chatting about how they are being trained by all might and how cool he is. All Might then makes it to the podium at the front of the class holding a plaque that reads 'Battle Training,' this causes everyone to get more excited with Bakugo grinning maniacally.

"But before we start our training you need to dress the part so you'll need your costumes!" All Might exclaims while clicking a button causing 20 cases to come out the wall, each with a number corresponding to a student in the class.

After everyone has changed into their costumes they're all standing in front of All Might waiting for him to explain the lesson to them when they heard footsteps from behind them, "Sorry, sorry. This was really difficult to get into." Izuku is running up from behind gesturing to his near skintight costume that looks like this:

(This is my illustration so if you like it let me know and I'll try to add more drawings to the story)

"Wow, Izuku your costume looks really cool! I wish I was more specific with my costume description, it's kind of embarrassing," Uraraka says while pointing to her own tight costume making Izuku very glad he put his mask on already so that no one would see his massive blush.

All Might then begins his lesson by explaining that they are doing indoor battle training where everyone will be paired up and be either the hero team tasked with securing a nuclear weapon or capturing the villain team while the Villain team has to either capture the hero team or keep them away from the weapon until the timer runs out. He then stated that the teams will be chosen at random.

"Is that really the best way to choose teams?" Iida asks in his usual robotic way.

Before All Might could answer Izuku interjects with, "Actually Iida if you think about it heroes don't get to choose who they work with when they arrive on a scene, they just have to work with whichever heroes are available no matter which agency they're with. So it makes sense that we're put into random teams."

"Ah, that makes sense. Of course, U.A. would be thinking about our future already," Iida replied.

"Good now that that's out the way lets sort out teams." All Might says, Izuku gets paired up with Uraraka as the Hero team versus Iida and Bakugo.

Izuku and Uraraka are given five minutes to plan while Iida and Bakugo are setting up in the building, Uraraka then turns to Izuku asking, "Have you got a plan Izuku?"

"Yeah I think so, they're probably going to put the weapon on the fourth floor so that it's the furthest away from the ground floor without being easily accessible if we managed to get to the roof. Katsuki is probably going to charge straight for us to prove how much stronger he is than me meaning he will probably leave Iida to guard the bomb alone. So I suggest we either go to the roof and avoid Katsuki completely or if that's not possible then I'll distract Katsuki while you go and get the weapon away from Iida." Izuku then looked up from his mumbling seeing Uraraka staring at him, "did you get all that? I tend to get quite fast when I'm analysing something."

Uraraka then nods her head saying, "yeah I got it, that was just really impressive." She then flashed Izuku a blinding smile, "as for getting us to the roof, I can make us flout but it would probably make me nauseous."

"Okay then, plan B it is," Izuku says in a confident tone.

The timer then started and the hero team quickly searched the first two floors, just to be sure, before beginning to climb the next flight of stairs to the third floor. Izuku and Uraraka then began to sneak along the corridor knowing that Bakugo is probably close by when Izuku quickly tackles Uraraka out of the way of a sizeable explosion from Bakugo.

"Hey, you alright?" Izuku asks while jumping back to his feet facing Bakugo so as to not be an easy target. "Go get to the bomb, radio me if you need help."

Uraraka while beginning to move away from the two boys currently facing down said, "are you sure? You don't need me to help here?"

"No, by the time we managed to take down Katsuki the villains would win anyway. We have to split up."

Meanwhile, the rest of the class are watching on the screens with All Might when Denki Kaminari, a boy with blond hair with a black lightning bolt in it, asked, "All Might is there any sound with this we can't hear what they're saying?"

All Might responded by flipping a switch just in time for everyone to hear Bakugo scream, "Deku, you quirkless bastard!" While charging at Izuku with a large right hook. Izuku then dodges slightly and grabs his upper arm and twists his body round to throw Bakugo over his shoulder slamming the blond onto the ground. Izuku then backs up to avoid the retaliation of Bakugo firing an explosion from his position on the floor.

Bakugo then stood up and with an almost calm expression said "I'll mess you up just enough not to be disqualified." He then sprinted at Izuku and began throwing explosively enhanced punches too fast for Izuku to dodge causing him to block as many hits as possible but slowly having the forearms of his costume burnt through. At this point Uraraka had got to the stairs to the fourth floor, trying to get to the bomb quickly so that Izuku didn't have to fight for too long.

Izuku then tried to go on the offensive by throwing his own punch which was quickly dodged by Bakugo as he fired an explosion to his left to end up flanking Izuku and clocking him right in the jaw, this cause Izuku to fall to the floor. Bakugo then lifted Izuku and flung him into a wall aided by a large explosion. The wall cracked upon impact and Izuku bounced off landing face first on the floor. He slowly rose to his feet, shaking a little as he spoke with a determined tone in his voice, "I'm not going to be your punching bag anymore, Katsuki. My name is not Deku and I am not Useless!" He then sprinted right at his assailant, once close enough he leapt at the blond boy driving his shoulder into his stomach and slamming them onto the ground. Although being winded by the tackle Bakugo managed to kick Izuku off of him sending him down the hallway.

Both boys then got to their feet repeating their earlier standoff with Izuku looking significantly more injured than his opponent. Bakugo then lifted his right arm after hearing a small ding signalling that it was ready. "You already know how my quirk works Deku, but did you know that these gauntlets aren't just for show? They've been storing up my sweat this whole time ready to fire," Bakugo said while cocking back the mechanism on his gauntlet before grabbing the pin ready to fire.

He was then interrupted by All Might shouting, "Bakugo, stop now. That blast will kill him!"

"He won't die if he dodges," Bakugo then pulled the pin firing the blast straight at the other boy. Izuku then made the judgement call that he wouldn't be able to dodge from this distance and instead braced for the impact and put his arms up to guard his face.

Everyone froze in the viewing room as they watched Izuku get enveloped by a raging inferno, the blast being powerful enough to blow a hole in the side of the building. All Might then dashed out of the room heading straight to the test site.

When the smoke cleared everyone saw Izuku still on his feet about an inch from the hole Bakugo created at the end of the corridor. He was swaying quite a lot, barely conscious with the top half of his costume destroyed and burnt away, exposing both his impressive physique and a slew of burn marks both new and old, some of which vaguely resemble a hand shape. Uraraka and Iida bolted down the stairs after feeling the tremor caused by Bakugo's attack and arrived alongside All Might just in time to see Izuku collapse to the floor.

Once Izuku had been taken to Recovery Girl on a stretcher by two small robots the rest of the class regrouped in the viewing room to continue on with the lesson. Every other exercise was completed without anyone nearly killing their opponent, the class then headed back to their classroom ready for the end of the day.

Everyone had been in the classroom for about five minutes, Aizawa had informed them that they had a free period to do what they want so long as they kept the noise down before getting into his sleeping bag for a quick nap when the door opened causing everyone to stop their chatting. Izuku was stood in the doorway thoroughly intimidated by the nineteen sets of eyes that just landed on him. he gave a quick wave exposing his arm covered in bandages while saying, "Hi, guys. How did the rest of the lesson go?" This was quickly met with shouting from the majority of the class.

"Izuku! Are you okay? Your not hurt are you?" shouted Uraraka as she ran up to him to make sure.

"That fight was super manly. The way you took that hit at the end was really cool, I'm not even sure I could have taken a hit like that and stayed standing," was yelled energetically from Kirishima as he threw his fist into the air.

Ashido then spoke up saying, "Yeah! You did pretty well in that fight considering you're quirkless."

"Thanks, yeah I'm fine Recovery Girl healed me up so I'm just a bit tired now," Izuku said as he made his way to his desk ignoring the glare that Bakugo was giving him, he proceeded to spend the class talking to Uraraka and Iida about how the other battles went before being allowed to leave for the day and walking to the station together like yesterday.


	5. UA Break In

As Izuku arrived at U.A. for his third day he noticed that the gate was blocked by reporters, all of whom were shouting questions at the student trying to get by. Izuku walked up to the crowd attempting to enter the campus unnoticed when a very eager reporter thrust a microphone into his face berating him with questions, "what's it like being taught by the number one hero? Is All Might a good teacher?"  
Izuku then proceeded to state in a very monotone voice, "I wouldn't know, I'm in Gen Ed."  
The reporters then immediately left him alone, almost running to go and harass other students. Izuku then began to make his way through the gate when he spotted Iida and Uraraka being surrounded by reporters and walked over to them and loudly said, "hey guys. We should get to class, they only want to talk to kids in the hero course," while giving them a subtle wink and pulling them into the school.  
Once safely through the gates, Uraraka said, "thanks for helping us out, Izuku. But why did you say we weren't in the hero course?" One of the reporters overheard this and began to move forward to get the answers to their questions, she attempted to step through the gate but it slammed shut leaving her inches away from a large metal gate nearly a foot thick.  
Izuku then replied to Uraraka's question saying, "because they wouldn't have left you alone if they knew you were in the hero class."

They then made their way to class arriving just in time to take a seat before the bell went off and Aizawa, their homeroom teacher walked in. He made his way to the front of that class before stating, "sorry for the sudden announcement, but today you'll pick a class president. Also Midoriya you'll need to attend a meeting after school to discuss what happened during yesterdays battle training."

Everyone burst into excited talking many shouting out their desire to be class president and making claims that they couldn't follow through on, meanwhile, Izuku was trying to figure out what the meeting would be about. The class's yelling was silenced by Iida when he suggested they vote for president, Aizawa okayed this idea before climbing back into his sleeping bag while the students got on with it.

After all the votes were tallied up, Izuku voted for Iida as he had no desire to be the class representative, it was decided that Iida would be president and Momo Yoayorozu would be Vice President, gaining 3 and 2 votes respectively.

Later in the day Izuku, Iida and Uraraka are sat eating lunch together when the female friend posed a question to the group, "hey I forgot to ask but why do you two want to be heroes?"  
Iida promptly answered first asking, "do you know the Turbo Hero: Ingenium?"  
At this Izuku begins mumbling about how he employs 65 sidekicks at his agency in Tokyo before coming to the realisation that, "So you're related? Probably his brother based on the age difference."  
"Yes. He is my older brother, he leads people with his unwavering adherence to the rules, a truly beloved hero. It is my admiration of him that drives me to be a hero, to hold up the Iida legacy," Iida answered with a passion the others hadn't seen yet.  
Uraraka then chipped in, "wow that's so cool. Izuku, what about you?"  
Izuku puts on a bright smile and says, "I've always wanted to help people, even before I found out I was quirkless. Although a lot of people have doubted me or even outright mocked me for it I never gave up, I will be a hero. The first Quirkless Hero!" Izuku then said in a quieter voice, "and prove everyone wrong. How about you Uraraka, why do you want to be a hero?"  
"For money," Uraraka states nervously, "it's not as noble as your reasons but my parents run a construction company and business has never been great, so I want to become a rich hero to provide for them." She ended her statement with more passion and confidence, truly believing in her goal.  
"I think that's a great reason, not only are you being practical, but your also helping people while helping your parents," Izuku said while giving an encouraging smile, "anyway what do you think this meeting's going to be about after school?"  
"I don't know, probably to make sure you're okay and maybe to see whether they need to punish Bakugo for being so reckless," Iida answered right before a loud alarm cut into their conversation.  
The trio jumped to their feet and grabbed the attention of a passing third year asking them what was going on, they were told that it meant someone without authorisation got onto the campus and that it hasn't happened before while they've been there. They were all then dragged along in the flood of students trying to evacuate when Izuku was pressed up against the large windows making it very easy to see that it was only the reporters and that both Aizawa and Present Mic were dealing with them.  
Izuku came to the conclusion that the crowd needed to calm down before anyone got hurt and came up with a plan. He pushed his way through the currents of students making his way over to his friends before telling them his plan.  
After about a minute Iida was floating above the crowd, thanks to Uraraka's quirk, he then activated his engine quirk sending him careening into the wall above the exit door in a pose reminiscent of the stick figure on an emergency exit sign. Iida then yelled gaining most people's attention and said, "everyone calm down. If you look outside you'll see that it's just the press. This is U.A. behave in a way befitting this great institution." After being berated on their conduct by Iida the crowd calmed down and exited in an orderly fashion leaving Iida, Izuku and Uraraka in the doorway. Iida was helped to the ground by the two others before following after the other students.

Later after school had ended Izuku said goodbye to his friends before being escorted to his meeting by Aizawa. On the way, Izuku asked, "hey Aizawa sensei, what's this meeting about then?"  
He was answered after a moment of silence with, "it's probably better if you hear it from him." Aizawa then opened the door and guided his student through it.  
Izuku walked through the door feeling quite nervous, this feeling then skyrocketed when he was met with 7 sets of eyes all belonging to pro heroes. In the meeting was All Might, Principal Nezu (a small white bear-mouse), Recovery Girl, Vlad King (class 1-B's homeroom teacher), Present Mic, Midnight and Cementos, as well as Aizawa who directed Izuku to an empty seat and sat next to him, almost protectively.  
All Might started the meeting off by saying, "Young Midoriya, I'm sure you know this meeting is about the training exercise yesterday, we were hoping you could answer some questions about what happened."  
"Yeah... yeah. I can do that," Izuku said, stuttering over his words a bit.  
"I was wondering young Midoriya, why did you not dodge young Bakugo's attack?"  
"What do you mean, All Might?" said Izuku quite confused by his question.  
"What I'm asking is why you stood and took the blast head on instead of trying to dodge? Were you trying to prove something or simply froze in fear?"  
"Oh. No, I made the decision not to dodge to limit how much damage I took. I wasn't trying to prove anything, I'm not fast enough to successfully dodge a blast that size and by trying I would have exposed myself to the blast more. Instead, I tried to block my vital organs and head to mitigate the damage caused by the blast." Answered Izuku slightly mumbling towards the end.  
Principal Nezu then spoke, "Recovery Girl can you offer any insight as to whether Izuku was correct in his decision to block rather than dodge?"  
"I believe he was probably correct in his assumption that he wouldn't have dodged in time and would probably have sustained more severe injuries," was Recovery Girls answer.  
All Might then addressed Izuku again saying, "unless you have any questions young Midoriya, you're free to leave."  
"Actually, I do have one question. Why are you asking me why I didn't dodge and whether it was a stunt to prove something instead of questioning Katsuki about why he ignored a direct order not to use a reckless attack and attempting to intentionally harm another student?" Izuku asked feeling a little annoyed by this whole meeting, "I get that I'm Quirkless and some of you probably don't think I deserve to be in the hero course or that it's not possible to become a hero but you don't have to intentionally make it more difficult for me than any other student." Izuku then left the meeting with his head held high leaving the teachers speechless as he called out the number one hero. Once Izuku got down a couple of hallways he slumped against the wall and had a small panic attack about how he just spoke to a group of pro heroes who are also his teachers.

After about twenty minutes of sitting on the floor trying to even out his breathing, Izuku heard footsteps coming up to him. Looking up he saw Aizawa walking up to him, he was expecting the worst thinking that they might expel him right now for the way he spoke to All Might, although the more rational voice in his head was telling him that nothing he said was true. Aizawa then crouched down in front of him and said, "I want you to know I agree with you, it was unfair of All Might to question you about your reaction and not Bakugo for his reckless actions." This made Izuku smile a bit and beginning to wipe the tears away from his eyes. "After you left we were discussing what you told us and came to the conclusion that due to the position you were in you made the most rational decision to reduce injuries to yourself. As for whether or not you're in trouble you're not." He then stood beginning to walk away saying, "it takes a lot of guts to stand up for yourself like that. I'll see you in class tomorrow."  
Izuku picked himself up and went home thoroughly exhausted from his first few days at U.A. but eager to continue on his path to be a hero.


	6. The USJ - Part 1

The next day Izuku is sat in class waiting for homeroom to start, he's a little distracted thinking about the meeting he was in yesterday and doesn't notice Aizawa walk in until the class explodes in excitement. He looks up and sees Eraserhead holding a plaque with the words 'Rescue Training' he then silenced the class with a look before informing them, "you can either wear your costume or your P.E. uniform as your costumes might not be suitable to rescue scenarios. Now hurry up and get changed the bus is leaving in 15 minutes." Aizawa then left the room, this caused everyone to jump to action to get their costumes and change quickly.

Izuku after finishing getting changed walks towards the bus spotting Iida in full class rep mode organising everyone into a seating chart when Uraraka asks him, "hey, why aren't you wearing your costume?"

"Oh, it's still damaged from the battle training. I'm waiting for the support department to repair it," Izuku replied and then got onto the bus walking up to a sulking Iida and sitting opposite him. It turns out the bus was open plan causing Iida's seating chart to be useless. Izuku is sat between Uraraka and Tsuyu Asui and opposite Iida, Eijiro Kirishima and Mina Ashido.

Part way through the bus ride Asui turned to Izuku and said, "I generally say what's on my mind, Midoriya. How did you pass the entrance exam without using a quirk?"

"Oh, well I started by ripping the wires out of a couple of the robots causing them to shut down. I also used the robots against themselves by using scrap metal from broken robots as weapons. I'm sure there were others that did something like that, I mean there's plenty of people without offensive quirks who are heroes, like Mandalay, Sir Nighteye or even Aizawa sensei; his quirk only lets him even the playing field by taking away someone's quirk."

"That's super manly, how many points did you get in the exam?" Kirishima asked excitedly.

"I got 31 villain points and 30 rescue points so 61 in total, I think I actually tied with Iida for 6th place."

Ashido then interjects into the conversation saying, "wow, 6th place without a quirk. Also, how do you know what Aizawa sensei's quirk is?"

Izuku then replied with a slightly nervous voice, "well the underground hero: Eraserhead is the only hero I know that uses a capture scarf and wears yellow goggles so it stands to reason that Aizawa sensei is Eraserhead."

Aizawa then spoke up lazily, "I'm glad one of you has been paying attention. Anyway, we're here, so get off the bus."

The students got off the bus and were greeted by a white spacesuit with a black dome and large white eyes for a head saying, "There's a flood zone, landslide zone, conflagration zone, ruins zone, landslide zone, mountain zone and downpour zone. Every disaster and accident you can imagine are housed here in this facility I built; The Unforeseen Simulation Joint."

Uraraka and Izuku then excitedly shouted, "It's the Space Hero: Thirteen. He's a gentleman hero who does his best work in rescue scenarios." with Uraraka continuing to state, "ooh, I love Thirteen. He's my favourite hero."

Aizawa then took the other teacher aside to ask where All Might is only to be informed that he had already used up his time for today fighting crime on his way to work and that he's resting in the teacher's lounge. This annoyed Aizawa making him mumble something about him being irrational. After this quick discussion, Thirteen then addressed the students giving them a speech about how many of their quirks could be used to kill and they have to learn to use them to save instead. He uses his own quirk, Blackhole; the ability to suck in and tear apart anything, as an example of a quirk that can easily kill and that he had to learn how to use it to save people.

Towards the end of Thirteen's speech Izuku got distracted by a small distortion in the Central Plaza, he slowly made his way over to Aizawa and whispered, "there's something down in the Plaza. Is that part of the lesson?"

This made Aizawa turn around just in time to see a man covered in disembodied hands to walk out from the distortion. He yelled out, "Huddle up and stay back! Thirteen protect the students."

The students then started throwing out questions about what's going on and if they're more faux villains like in the entrance exam before Izuku shut them up saying, "those are real villains." He made his way to the rest of the class and towards Iida.

The villain covered in hands then spoke, projecting his voice so that the class could hear him, "Thirteen and Eraserhead, according to the schedule I received All Might is supposed to be here. Where is he!? We've come all this way... and brought so many playmates. I wonder if some dead kids would bring him here?"

At this Eraserhead leapt down the stairs ready to take them all on to protect his students. Izuku also jumped to action by whispering to Iida, "If the villains are here it means they've blocked the alarms to warn the rest of U.A. You're the fastest one here Iida, you need to go get the other heroes to help us."

"But to leave my colleagues behind would be dishonourable," Iida argued.

"Thirteen is a rescue hero and Aizawa sensei is best at stealthy take-downs not fighting a crowd of villains. They aren't going to last long without back-up and you're our best chance at getting help quickly now go before they notice." After this explanation Iida rushed out the door closing it just before a villain made out of black mist appeared blocking the exit.

The students backed away from the villain and getting behind Thirteen, Izuku stopped next to the space hero and whispered, "I told Iida to go get help from the other heroes and he got out just before he teleported up here," gesturing to the villain.

"Shouldn't there be 20 of you? I only count 19, where's your classmate?" The mist villain asked.

Izuku was quick to answer before any of the other students could, saying, "he's sick, he didn't come in today."

Seeming to buy the lie the mist villain then started to give a little speech, "greetings. We are the League of Villains. Forgive our audacity, but... today, we've come to U.A. High School - this bastion of heroism... to end the life of... All Might, The Symbol of Peace!" He began to expand his fog surrounding the students while saying, "we were under the impression that All Might would be here today, but no matter, my role remains unchanged."

Right as he finished his little speech both Bakugo and Kirishima charged at the villain while stating with confidence, "not if we end you first. Bet you didn't see that coming." Their attacks though seemed to not damage the villain only displacing the smoke a little. Unfortunately, the two brash students were now stood between the villain and Thirteen stopping the hero from attacking the villain.

"No, get back! Both of you!" Thirteen yelled just as the students were enveloped by mist warping them throughout the facility and leaving only five students in the entryway; Uraraka, Sero, Sato, Ashido and Shoji, along with Thirteen.


	7. The USJ - Part 2

Izuku was engulfed in a dizzying swirl of darkness, losing all sense of direction. He then found himself falling above a large body of water, he quickly held his breath and braced for impact. As he was falling he came to the conclusion that he was above the Flood Zone and that the mist villain must have a teleportation quirk.

Izuku hit the water and was immediately face to face with a villain with shark-like features, the villain then began swimming towards Izuku opening their mouth wide showing two rows of sharp teeth. Izuku prepared to fight the villain assuming that the villain would be able to swim faster than him, suddenly a pair of strong legs planted themselves onto the villains face. Tsuyu Asui then wrapped her tongue around Izuku's waist and pushed off of the villains face effectively kicking him and propelling herself through the water.

When she reached the yacht in the middle of the zone she threw both Izuku and Mineta onto the deck of the boat using her tongue and then climbed the side of the boat.

"Thanks for the save Asui," said Izuku as he got to his feet catching his breath from being underwater.

"Call me Tsuyu," she said in a monotone voice. "Also we seem to be in trouble, here."

"Yeah, they seemed to know which teachers would be here, the simplest explanation that they caused the media break in yesterday to get the lesson schedule. That means they've planned this, so they must have figured out a way to beat All Might," said Izuku as he started analysing his surroundings.

After looking around for about a minute Izuku turns back to Tsuyu and Mineta saying, "I think we need to fight our way out of here."

Mineta then started screaming, "that makes no sense. Midoriya you're contradicting yourself. If they can beat All Might how are we supposed to win?!"

"We have the element of surprise. All the villains in the water are clearly suited towards aquatic combat, right? So they must have had the layout of the U.S.J when planning their attack but they sent you, Asui to the shipwreck zone when it would have been better to send you to the conflagration zone. Therefore they don't know what quirks we have. We can use that, tell me what your quirks can do, I think I can come up with a plan."

Tsuyu, while crouching replied, "I can jump really high and stick to walls. I can stretch my tongue out to a maximum of 20 meters. I can also spit up my stomach to clean it and secrete a 'poisonous' fluid through it just stings a bit. Those last two probably won't be helpful right now though."

"Wow, I underestimated you, you're strong. You both know I'm quirkless, so Mineta what can you do?"

"The balls on my head are really sticky and can stick to anything for up to a day depending on how I'm feeling, they regenerate immediately but if I use too many my scalp starts bleeding. I also bounce off of them." He then demonstrated this by pulling one of and sticking it to a wall.

Izuku began muttering trying to come up with a plan meanwhile the villains in the water were becoming impatient, a large axe shape formed out of the water and came down on the yacht cutting it in half and causing it to slowly sink into the water. Mineta started to panic and began throwing his balls into the water until Izuku exclaimed, "I've got it! I have a plan, come here. Tsuyu, do you think you could throw me over towards the shallow end of the zone?"

"Yeah, I think I could get you close. Why do you need me to throw you though?"

"Well if I can get over to the zone controls I'm sure that there would be a whirlpool setting to train hero students. Once the whirlpool starts Mineta can use his quirk to stick all the villains together when they get pulled together by the current and then you can jump over to the shallow area with him and we can make it over to the exit."

"Okay, that makes sense. We need to do this now though." Tsuyu said before picking up Izuku with her tongue. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Let's do this." Tsuyu whipped her tongue back and then flung it forward before releasing Izuku and sending him flying over the zone towards the central plaza.

The villains watched Izuku saw overhead and began swimming over to him as he fell into the water, noticing the villains coming closer Izuku swam as fast as he could over to the edge of the water. After quickly looking around he spotted a control panel obscured by some bushes near the water's edge and ran over to it quickly finding the input for a whirlpool and starting the program.

The water then began spiralling and pulling the villains towards the centre, noticing this Mineta began throwing his balls into the water which caused all the villains to be stuck together into a large group. Seeing this Izuku shut of the Whirlpool program allowing Tsuyu and Mineta to jump over without the risk of being caught in the whirlpool.

The trio made their way close to the central plaza and Tsuyu said, "What should we do now?"

Izuku replied, "Iida has already gone to get more teachers to help so we need to get to the exit and meet up with everyone else." Once they got closer they saw Eraserhead still fighting with a crowd of villains using his quirk and capture scarf to immobilise the villains before knocking them out.

A pale man covered in disembodied hands then made his way towards Aizawa while counting down the time while his quirk was active, they began charging towards each other. Eraserhead dodged under the villain's outstretched hands and landed an elbow into his stomach. The villain then grabbed hold of his elbow and using his quirk made the cloth and skin begin to disintegrate cracking the skin and exposing the muscle below. Aizawa spun his body and landed a left cross onto the villains face separating the two and stopping the quirks effect.

"Your quirk isn't good in long, group battles, huh? You're much better at sneak attacks yet you jumped straight into this fight. Hoping to make the kids feel safe?" The villain was picking himself up off the floor. "That's so cool. By the way, hero... I'm not the boss here."

A hulking black figure then surged towards Aizawa, closing the distance and pinning him to the floor in the blink of an eye. The figure then snapped his arm like a twig even while having its quirk nullified by Eraserhead. The trio in the water watched on in horror as this behemoth pinned their teacher on the floor with ease.

While they were frozen in fear, the black mist villain reappeared next to the pale man saying, "Thirteen is incapacitated, there were some students I couldn't warp away. Also, there's a student missing but I was told they weren't in today."

"Good, let's see if killing a few kids will get All Might here any quicker." The pale man said before dashing over to the teens in the water, "wound the pride of the symbol of peace."

Izuku saw the villains hand come forward as he lunged at Tsuyu, only having enough time to react by jumping between the two. The villain's hand landed on Izuku's upper arm and shoulder slowly disintegrating the cloth of his PE shirt before landing on his skin. He let out a guttural scream as his skin began turning to dust leaving a hand-print shaped area of exposed muscle. The villain then turned around to see Aizawa lifting his head off the ground to cancel out his quirk. "You really are so cool, Eraserhead."

The larger villain then slammed Eraserhead's face back into the ground, hard enough to crack some of the concrete. See the pale man turn his back to them Izuku quickly told his classmates, "Try and get Aizawa sensei to safety, I'm going to distract the villains." Before giving them a chance to reply Izuku tackled the villain around the waist, this sent the villain to the ground face first and Izuku used the surprise attack to pin the villain's hands against the floor. Tsuyu and Mineta started running around the edge of the plaza, heading towards the stairs while waiting for an opening to rescue Aizawa.

On the other side of the Plaza, three more hero students arrived Todoroki after freezing the whole landslide zone and trapping the villains located there and Kirishima and Bakugo who fought there way out of the ruins zone. They stopped to asses the situation and noticed Aizawa being pinned down by a behemoth of a villain while Izuku was pinning the villain covered in hands. They also spotted the black mist villain and Tsuyu and Mineta all waiting for their opportunity to act. Before they could react to the situation in front of them the pale villain shouted, "Nomu, get this brat off of me!"

In the blink of an eye, the large black villain who was previously holding Aizawa on the floor had disappeared and reappeared right in front of Izuku. Tsuyu saw her chance and extended her tongue and wrapped it around Eraserhead bringing him towards the exit, meanwhile Izuku lifted his head just in time to see a massive black foot coming towards him. The Nomu's foot collided with Izuku's torso making a loud cracking sound, he was then sent flying backwards and rolling across the floor like a rag-doll.

Silence flooded the plaza. All of the hero students were frozen in place when the doors to the entrance burst open, "Fear Not. I AM HERE!" All Might had just arrived not smiling like usual, instead, with a serious look on his face, "Young Iida told me what happened so do not fear, your other teachers are also on their way. Now villains surrender."

"You're too late ALL MIGHT!" interrupted the pale villain, "Your getting slower, weaker even." With that statement, the villain pointed over to a green haired boy collapsed on the ground unmoving. Many of the students then broke from the frozen state, Uraraka had tears streaming down her cheeks watching Izuku's body, chest barely rising with his ragged breaths. The last thing Izuku saw before succumbing to unconsciousness was All Might colliding with the Nomu causing a large shock wave.

Later that day Izuku awoke to a blinding light and a repetitive beeping, looking around he recognised the room as Recovery Girls Infirmary. As he tried to sit up he let out an involuntary groan from the pain in his chest. Recovery Girl then walked in the room saying, "lie back down, I've healed most of your injuries but you've still got some pretty bad bruising."

"What about the others, is anyone else hurt? How's Aizawa sensei?" Izuku questioned.

"Calm down, your classmates are fine, just a couple of scratches. Aizawa and Thirteen are both being treated at a local hospital but they will be fine as well," Recovery girl replied, "as for you, you will be staying here overnight and I'll heal you again in the morning. You will, unfortunately, have a scar from the injury on your shoulder as I couldn't reverse the disintegration of your skin. Now get some rest."


	8. Sports Festival - Part 1

The next day after being healed again by recovery girl Izuku made his way to class 1-A for homeroom, he opened the door and was immediately greeted by silence as everyone turned to look at him. "Hey... what did I miss?" Izuku said in an attempt to break the silence.

Suddenly Uraraka had tackled him into a hug saying, "are you okay? I was so scared when you got hit by that big villain."

"Uh, yeah I'm fine, Recovery Girl healed me up, though I do have a scar from the pale villain," Izuku's face was now a light shade of red, "I'm glad you're all okay, but what happened after All Might showed up? I kinda blacked out."

"Well All Might was fighting with the big villain when the mist villain opened portals to trap him in the big one's hands when Todoroki, Bakugo and Kirishima jumped in to help," Ashido said while Uraraka had let go and was now looking bashful and an even darker shade of red than Izuku. "Apparently the big villain had a regeneration quirk because Todoroki froze and shattered one of its legs which just grew back. Anyway, All Might ended up hitting him so hard he flew through the roof of the U.S.J. It was awesome!"

Iida then joined the conversation saying, "Yes, then I arrived with the other teachers who split up to take out the smaller villains and help our other classmates get to the exit. I believe the pale villain and the mist villain both escaped around the same time." Iida then bowed towards Izuku saying, "I must thank you if you hadn't have convinced me to go and get help as quick as you had I fear that attack could have gone far worse for us."

"I should thank you too Midoriya, not only did you get us out of the shipwreck zone you also stopped that pale villain from disintegrating me," Asui said, "you even helped us rescue Aizawa sensei."

"You don't have to thank me, I just did what I could-"

"Don't you dare think you're some kind of hero just 'cause you 'saved' a couple of people!" Bakugo shouted, interrupting Izuku's ramblings, "You're still the only student that got hurt, you quirkless loser."

Just as Iida was about to jump to Izuku's defence the door opened once again this time to reveal Aizawa arms and head wrapped in white bandages. "Everyone get to your seats."

"Are you sure you should be back already sensei?" Asui asked.

"My welfare isn't important. Because your fight is far from over." This got all the students confused and slightly panicked thinking there might be another villain attack. "U.A's Sports Festival is fast approaching."

"Is that really a sensible idea, we were just attacked by villains?" Iida said.

"It's necessary. To demonstrate U.A's crisis management protocols are sound, there will also be five times the police presence there was in previous years. Either way, the sports festival is the greatest opportunity you'll get. Pro heroes often use the festival to scout for new sidekicks, you'll obviously gain more experience and popularity if you're picked up by a big pro. Show them what you're made of here and you'll make a future for yourself. This happens once a year so you only get three chances, you can't afford to miss it."

The news of the sports festival got everyone excited, none more so than Uraraka, whose face now sported a look of pure determination, "Iida, Izuku. Let's do our best at the sports festival!"

"Yeah. It's my first chance to show the world that being quirkless doesn't stop you from being a hero." Izuku said, a similar look of determination on his face. 

Two weeks later, the sports festival is getting ever closer, Izuku, Uraraka and Iida are about to leave class 1-A and head home when they heard a lot of chattering coming from outside the door. Opening it Uraraka was greeted by a sea of students all crowding around their door, "What's going on?"

"They're scouting out the competition. 'cause we're the kids that survived a villain attack. Makes sense they'd want a look before the sports festival," Bakugo explained as he headed out the door, "there's no point though, move aside extras."

Iida began to berate Bakugo's behaviour but was interrupted by a tall purple haired student saying, "You're right we came to get a look. Is everyone in the hero course this arrogant? Gotta say I'm a little disillusioned if this is all you've got to offer." The purple haired boy had now made his way to the front of the crowd, "did you know that those of us that didn't make it into the hero course got stuck in gen ed? Just because we don't have a quirk that's good for destroying robots."

Uraraka then piped up, "Actually Izuku doesn't-"

"No. Let them find out during the festival," Izuku interrupted.

"Anyway, if we do well enough in the festival we can get moved into the hero course, which means if you don't I'm taking your spot." With that, the purple haired boy walked off. 

Another week went by and it is now the day of the Sports Festival, all of the students arrived in the centre of the arena and grouped together in classes, Izuku was trying to calm his nerves, Midnight then came on stage and snapped her whip to get everyone's attention while saying, "Now for the Athletes Oath. And your student representative is from class 1-A, Katsuki Bakugo!"

Bakugo walked up to the stage with his hands in his pockets and making his way over to the microphone, "I just want to say, I'm going to take first place." This caused outrage amongst the other contestants, "You'll make great stepping stones," he then walked back and rejoined 1-A. Meanwhile, Midnight had started to announce the first event pointing towards a large screen with different words cycling through until it stopped at Obstacle Race.

"This year's first event is an obstacle course, a race between every member of all eleven classes. The course is a four-kilometre lap around the stadium itself, as long as you don't leave the course anything is fair game." With that, a large door opened and a buzzer signalled the start of the race.

Immediately students began sprinting forward through the tunnel, which bottlenecked them leaving a perfect opportunity for Todoroki to freeze the floor just after the tunnel either sticking people to the floor or forcing them to run on ice. Many members of 1-A managed to dodge the ice, most notably Yaoyorozu who used a pole she created to vault over some stuck students, Bakugo who blasted himself into the air and Izuku who happened to avoid the initial wave of ice and then used his momentum to slide across it.

The students then made their way around the corner to see a variety of robots from the entrance exam, including multiple zero pointers, followed by Present Mic's commentary, "Every obstacle course needs obstacles, starting with the first barrier. ROBOT INFERNO."

Todoroki was the first to encounter the robots, hearing everyone talking about how they were the robots from the entrance exam, he said, "kinda wish they prepared something a little more threatening." He crouched down sliding his fingertips across the ground before lifting his hand towards the robots and sending a mountain of ice at them, freezing two zero pointers in place before running through the gap.

Other students saw this opening and said, "he stopped 'em! We can get through that gap!"

"Bad Idea. I froze them in pretty unstable positions... so they'll fall." Todoroki said as he made it to the other side of the robots, the ice then cracking under the weight of the off-balance robots. These robots then crashed down onto the ground causing a large barricade for the other contestants.

"1-A's Todoroki! Busting through and sabotaging others in one move! This guy's cold!" Present Mic announced.

There were a few students standing around the fallen robot with looks of concern having just seen it fall atop two other contestants. There was then a couple of loud thumping sounds and the metal creaking before two holes were ripped open, two teens burst out from the waist up, one was Kirishima while the other was a student from 1-B with metallic skin. They said in unison, "if I wasn't me, I'd be dead."

Bakugo blew past the hardening duo, using his explosions to fly over the zero pointers, avoiding the obstacle altogether. He was followed by Tokoyami and Sero using their quirks to climb the robot. Sero said, "with your personality, I thought you would have fought your way through."

Meanwhile, Izuku was coming up against a smaller robot, it swung forward with one of its armoured limbs. Izuku ducked under its attack and darted past it, spotting a metal plate from a previously broken robot. He slid down to it and lifted it over his head while crouched down using it as a shield from the robots next strike. He pushed back against the robot forcing it off balance then swung the metal at the bot slicing its head off before continuing running, keeping the metal plate as it might come in useful later.

Now that the front runners made it past the robots Present Mic announced, "So the first obstacle was a piece of cake?! How about the second?! Fall and you're out! THIS IS THE FALL!"

Many of the students arrive at this obstacle and stopped at the edge of a large ravine, within the canyon, there were pillars of stone linked together with cables which created tight-rope bridges. Asui was one of the first to begin crossing the chasm by crawling along the cable using her adhesive limbs to not slip. Todoroki was still in the lead going slowly over the tight-rope to keep his balance. Meanwhile, a girl from the support course, with pink hair and large brass goggles, shot a grappling hook from a device on her belt using it to swing through the crevasse. Izuku was slowly crawling along the cable, hanging underneath while still carrying the metal plate having tied it around himself with the internal wiring still attached to it.

As Todoroki reaches the other side of the chasm the sound of explosions gets louder, Bakugo was flying over the ravine using his explosions to keep him in the air. They then made it to the final obstacle with Present Mic exclaiming, "the leaders of the pack have reached the final barrier. That's to say... this minefield! A quick glance is enough to spot the mines, so keep both eyes open and watch your step!"

Izuku was still hanging on the cable above the ravine quietly panicking because they were so far ahead of him, he then made it to the edge and hauled himself up along with his metal plate. He made it to the minefield, he spotted Todoroki and Bakugo in the distance, neck and neck, still battling for first place.

Izuku took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves, he then came up with a plan. He was either going to rocket towards the front of the pack or cause him to fail completely, but he didn't know how many students were going into the next round so he had to aim for first. Finally building up enough courage, Izuku ran forward lifting the metal plate in front of him before jumping and angling himself to land on top of the metal plate as it hit the mines. Due to people being more cautious at the beginning of the obstacle Izuku managed to cover a few mines with his metal plate, setting them all off at once.

A loud explosion rang out and pink smoke engulfed the start of the minefield. Izuku was sent flying into the air as well as forwards towards the finish line.

"A giant explosion from behind?! What caused such a blast?! An accident? Or was it intentional?" As Present Mic was announcing this the cameras zoomed in to see Izuku sawing through the air still clinging to his metal plate and leaving a trail of pink smoke behind him.

"And class 1-A's Midoriya rides the wave in hot pursuit!" Izuku then began his decline, falling fast and just passing all the front runners, seeing this Todoroki and Bakugo stopped attacking each other and instead sped up.

Izuku's balance was then disrupted by an explosion fired from Bakugo causing him to fall forward. As he fell forward Izuku used his momentum to do a full front flip, planting a foot on the shoulders of Todoroki and Bakugo he swung the metal plate overhead and onto the ground between them and below himself hitting a couple of mines in the process. The other boys got flung to the left and right of the blast both distracting them and slowing them down while Izuku was sent flying forward. He hit the ground hard but quickly scrambled to his feet and sprinted as fast as he could to the finish line, crossing it mere seconds before Todoroki, followed shortly by Bakugo.

"And Midoriya blows off the competition with no time to lose! Your class is something else Eraser Head! What're you teaching those kids?"

"This isn't my doing. They've all got something they want to prove." Aizawa said in his monotone voice.

"And the winner is... none other than Izuku Midoriya!"

Izuku stood in the centre of the field, a determined look on his face and only one thought in his mind, I'll prove I can be a quirkless hero.


	9. Sports Festival - Part 2

Izuku was stood in the middle the arena, looking up at the crowd with a slight smile on his face. He'd just won, he beat dozens of people with quirks, but the real challenge was just about to start. Izuku was shaken from his thoughts by Uraraka running up to him saying, "Izuku, that was awesome!"

She was followed up by Iida mumbling to himself about his shame, having lost a race considering his quirk is all about speed. Uraraka then got uncomfortably close to Izuku saying, "First place! Man, I'm jealous." Izuku covered his head with his arms, shrinking inwards a little as Uraraka enthusiastically praised him.

Midnight, again standing on the stage and pointing at the large screen next to her, then said, "so it's finally over. Let's check the results!"

1st Izuku Midoryia - Class 1-A  
2nd Shoto Todoroki - Class 1-A  
3rd Katsuki Bakugo - Class 1-A  
4th Ibara Shiozaki - Class 1-B  
5th Juzo Honenuki - Class 1-B  
6th Tenya Iida - Class 1-A  
7th Fumikage Tokoyami - Class 1-A  
8th Hanta Sero - Class 1-A  
9th Eijiro Kirishima - Class 1-A  
10th Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu - Class 1-B  
11th Mashirao Ojiro - Class 1-A  
12th Yosetsu Awase - Class 1-B  
13th Tsuyu Asui - Class 1-A  
14th Mezo Shoji - Class 1-A  
15th Rikido Sato - Class 1-A  
16th Ochaco Uraraka - Class 1-A  
17th Momo Yaoyorozu - Class 1-A  
18th Minoru Mineta - Class 1-A  
19th Mina Ashido - Class 1-A  
20th Koji Koda - Class 1-A  
21st Kyoka Jiro - Class 1-A  
22nd Sen Kaibara - Class 1-B  
23rd Kosei Tsuburaba - Class 1-B  
24th Denki Kaminari - Class 1-A  
25th Kojiro Bondo - Class 1-B  
26th Reiko Yanagi - Class 1-B  
27th Hitoshi Shinso - Class 1-C (General Education Course)  
28th Itsuka Kendo - Class 1-B  
29th Jurota Shishida - Class 1-B  
30th Shihai Kuroiro - Class 1-B  
31st Yui Kodai - Class 1-B  
32nd Hiryu Rin - Class 1-B  
33rd Nirengeki Shoda - Class 1-B  
34th Kinoko Komori - Class 1-B  
35th Togaru Kamakiri - Class 1-B  
36th Neito Monoma - Class 1-B  
37th Pony Tsunotori - Class 1-B  
38th Toru Hagakure - Class 1-A  
39th Setsuna Tokage - Class 1-B  
40th Manga Fukidashi - Class 1-B  
41st Mei Hatsume - Class 1-H (Support Course)  
42nd Yuga Aoyama - Class 1-A

"The top 42 from this qualifying round will move on!" Midnight announced, the screen next to her began spinning through options, "Now on to the second event! Next up is this..." She pointed to the screen which stopped on 'Cavalry Battle'.

"So we're teaming up, but how exactly?" Asui asked.

"Participants will, on their own, form teams of two to four members each and get into a horse-and-rider formation!" Midnight explained while the screen showed All Might being held up by Thirteen, Snipe and Present Mic. "The rules are fundamentally the same as those of an ordinary cavalry battle; snag your opponents' headbands while guarding your own but with one exception. Each of you has been assigned a point value based on your ranking in the last event!"

"We'll earn points like in the entrance exam? Sounds simple," Sato said.

"So the point value of each team depends on its members!" Hagakure exclaimed.

"I'm about to explain it, so shut up already!" Midnight shouted while cracking her whip, Ashido began laughing at Hagakure for causing Midnight's outburst. "Anyway yes! And your individual point values start at five, at the bottom. So the student who took 42nd place is worth five points, 41st is worth ten... get it? But our first place participant is worth... TEN MILLION POINTS!"

This caused everyone in the crowd to turn and look at Izuku, seeing their easiest way to get to the next round. Midnight continued her explanation with, "The higher ranked students are the ones to aim for. This survival game is a chance for a comeback. It's anyone's game!" Izuku began to sweat heavily under everyone's scrutinous gazes, he then clenched his hands into fists and lifted his head to meet the eyes of those looking at him. There's a lot of pressure on his shoulders right now and a lot of people looking to take him down and stop him getting to the next round of the festival, but everyone's always been against him.

Midnight continued explaining the rules, basically, the teams point total will be on a headband worn by the rider, any collected headbands must be worn on the riders neck or higher. The game will last for 15 minutes and even if you lose your headband your still in the game. The only way to be disqualified is for your rider to touch the ground. Midnight then said, "quirks are allowed, so it'll be a brutal battle. You've got 15 minutes. Time to form your teams!" She cracked her whip to emphasise her last command.

Izuku immediately walked up to the stage gaining Midnight's attention, "Midnight sensei, If no one teams up with me am I eliminated or can I still participate?"

"Why do you think you won't get a team?"

"Well, I'm quirkless and have the most points so everyone's going to just try and take it off me assuming I'm not a threat, why would they want to team up to me?" Izuku said, stating very matter of factly.

Midnight looked away for a second, whispering through a headset to Principal Nezu. She then looked back to Izuku, "I guess you can compete alone if you don't get a team."

Hearing this Izuku walked over to the side of the arena away from everyone else, without even trying he came to the conclusion that no one would team up with him. He began planning and watching how everyone teamed up. He saw Iida join Todoroki's team, becoming the front horse, Uraraka ended up joining Bakugo after spending a few minutes looking around. Most members of 1-A teamed up with each other, similarly, 1-B did the same sticking to people they knew.

After the prep time was up, Izuku situated himself in the middle of the arena. Everyone's eyes were on him. People began muttering about him, "why doesn't he have a team?"

"Did no one want to help him?"

"It should be easy to take the 10 million off him now."

He stood in the centre and as Present Mic was counting down he began to undo his headband. At "go" he released the piece of fabric letting it blow across the ground in the wind.

"What's going on? He just gave up the 10,000,000 points." Present Mic announced.

"Hahaha. Is he just giving up? That's just pathetic," Monoma, from 1-B said.

Izuku ignored everyone's mocking and pitying. He assumed everyone would aim for his points so he got rid of them, his only task now was to take points from the smaller and weaker teams. He smirked a little and watched the headband fly over to the area Bakugo and Todoroki had set up, in his head Izuku sectioned off that area. No good was going to come from coming between those two powerhouses.

While everyone was still in stunned silence, no one knew what to do since Izuku had the most points and just threw them away, Izuku just started running around the arena. Izuku came up behind team Kodai and while they were distracted by explosions clashing with ice he grabbed their headband, ripping it free and running off behind another team to get away. That took his points from zero to 165. He continued sneaking around the weaker groups, attacking when they were distracted by the heavy-hitters performing super-moves to try and claim the 10,000,000 points he dropped earlier. He managed to steal points from Hagakure, who removed her jacket to make her upper body completely invisible. This brought his total up to 555.

Meanwhile, across the battlefield, Bakugo and Todoroki were fighting for the headband. Todoroki froze the other team to the floor, Uraraka used her quirk on Bakugo allowing him to fly at high speeds using the explosions from his palms to direct him. Kirishima was punching the ice while Ashido was melting it away. Bakugo was continually firing explosions around the other team, distracting them from planning and searching for an opening to get the headband.

Back with Izuku, he was about to go after another headband when he heard a condescending laugh behind him, "hahaha, you're all alone here and I'm taking those points."

Monoma then reached down trying to swipe his points from around his head, his fingers grazed over Izukus hair as he leaned away before pushing Monoma back. "Hahaha, do you know what my quirk is? I can copy quirks- wait..." Monoma looked thoroughly confused. The front 'horse' of Monona's team used his quirk to create a barrier of hard air in front of Izuku.

"I don't have a quirk for you to copy," Izuku stated before climbing the barrier and lunging off it at Monoma, grabbing a headband while he was stunned before running off behind a large section of ice.

"That's 860 points now and only a couple of minutes left," Izuku muttered to himself as he caught his breath. He decided to hide for the remainder of the time hoping he got enough points to make it to the next round. Across the battlefield, everyone else was now frantically searching for any points they could get. With only 20 seconds left Izuku watched Iida activate his quirk having blue flames burst out his exhausts as he rocketed towards Bakugo's team, this burst of speed caught everyone off guard allowing Todoroki to snatch away the 10,000,000 point headband. Meanwhile, Uraraka had made herself float around Todoroki's left side grabbing his original 615 point headband while he was preoccupied.

Midnight called the end of the round and Izuku turned to see a long tongue and two strands of tape heading towards him, only about a meter away. He ducked quickly and thanked Midnight for ending the round before he got eliminated.

Everyone gathered around the stage to see the results, Team Todoroki took first place having stolen the 10 million point headband in the last seconds. Bakugo's Team took second with 1240 points, Izuku then saw his own name with 3rd written next to it, he had 860 points narrowly beating Team Tetsutetsu who had 820 points. In fifth, and the final team continuing onto the next round, was Team Shinso with 810 points.

"Since 17 of you passed this round someone from Team Shinso needs to drop out, you can decide amongst yourselves," Midnight said.

Immediately Ojiro came forward and said, "I'll withdraw from the competition, I don't remember any of the last round and don't feel right continuing if I didn't earn my place."

The other members of the team; Hitoshi Shinso from Gen Ed, Mei Hatsume from the Support department and Yuga Aoyama from 1-A all had relieved looks on their face knowing that they made it into the next round.

After accepting Ojiro's withdrawal Midnight announced, "Now, as per tradition the final round will be a 1 vs 1 tournament! But before that its time for lunch and some recreational activities for any contestants that want to compete."

Izuku headed off to the cafeteria to get some food and plan for the next round, he's going to have to fight against people with quirks in an open arena with nothing to use but his own body.


	10. Sports Festival - Part 3

Izuku sat alone in the cafeteria while planning how to go about his matches in the tournament, he didn't know who he would be facing and therefore had to plan to face all of them. He was interrupted from his thoughts when Uraraka sat down opposite him, "Hey, Izuku. Are you okay? You kinda spaced out there."

"I'm fine. Just trying to plan for the next round," Izuku replied, "How are you finding the festival? You seem to be doing quite well."

"Yeah, I got 2nd in the last round," Uraraka said, "Sorry you didn't have a team. I did try to look for you, but I ran out of time."

"Why were you looking for me?"

"Well, teaming up with a friend just seemed right, you know?" Uraraka had a bright smile on her face. "I'm glad you made it even without a team. I would have felt awful if you lost because no one teamed up with you."

Izuku and Uraraka then finished their lunch, the recreational activities were finished and Cementos formed a large rectangular stage for the tournament. He was standing in the tunnel leading to the arena awaiting Present Mic's announcement for the first round.

"The first Match!" Present Mic Yelled, "Izuku Midoryia from the Hero Course versus Hitoshi Shinso from General Studies." Both contestants made their way onto the stage standing opposite each other with looks of pure determination on their faces. "The rules are simple! Win by knocking your opponent out of the ring, immobilising them or getting them to say 'I Give Up'!"

"'I give up,' huh? Get it, Izuku Midoryia? This battle's going to test your strength of will," Shinso said, "If you've got any kind of vision for your future, there's no sense in worrying about how you get there."

"Now let's get this thing started! Ready!" Present Mic announced.

"Like that monkey, babbling about his stupid pride," Shinso continued, "What kind of dumb-ass throws away a chance like this?"

"START!" Present Mic yelled.

Izuku dashed forward towards his opponent. "What'd you say?!" he yelled, angered by what he said about his classmate, he might not be friends with them all but he respects their goal to be heroes.

He immediately stopped with a vacant stare in his eyes, "It's my win," Shinso stated.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong? This battle's just beginning. Show us some spirit!" Present Mic yelled through the arena speakers, "Mere seconds into the match, Midoriya's... Frozen in place?!"

Everyone was shocked.

"He's not even twitching! Could this be Shinso's quirk?!" Present Mic continued, "We were barely aware this guy even existed, but now... he sure is one to keep an eye on!"

Aizawa then explained that Shinso's quirk is extraordinarily powerful, but wasn't useful for the entrance exam since it was against robots, hence why he was in the General Education Department.

"You... must be nice to have everything handed to you, Midoriya," Shinso said with a bitter tone in his voice, "Now turn around and walk out of the ring."

Izuku turned and followed the instructions beginning to walk to the edge, Shinso said "You probably wouldn't think so but this quirk of mine is like a dream. Right. You Lose."

Izuku's left foot then stood on the lace of his right shoe, he went to take the next step and fell forward. He couldn't protect himself due to being mind-controlled and landed face-first on the concrete. Standing back up he looked over to Shinso, cheek grazed and nose bleeding from the impact.

"Midoriya! He seems to have broken free!" Present Mic announced.

"You're so lucky," Shinso said, "got nothing to say?"

Izuku stayed silent, having figured out it was based on his reply, he then started walking towards his opponent wiping the blood from his face.

"Thanks to my quirk's nature, I couldn't enter the golden gates. You wouldn't get that. Being naturally blessed, born with an awesome quirk... Getting to follow all your dreams!" Shinso yelled, getting angrier as he went on, the jealousy evident in his voice.

While Shinso was distracted by his emotions Izuku moved forward and began pushing him to the edge of the arena. Right as Shinso got to the edge he tried to switch positions with Izuku to push him out, he reached out his arm for the final push. Izuku grabbed his outstretched arm and flung him over his shoulder. Shinso landed roughly on his back, letting out a groan, his legs were out of bounds.

"Shinso is out of the ring!" Midnight announced, "Midoriya moves onto the second round!"

Izuku headed over to Shinso, offering his hand out to help him up, "You're wrong. I'm not blessed, I don't have a quirk. I got into the hero course through hard work. You've got a good quirk so stop being so resentful and be the hero I think you can be." He then left the arena, quickly visiting Recovery Girl to get healed before going to 1-A's viewing box. He sat next to Uraraka and pulled out his Hero Analysis notebook to take notes on the other matches.

The second match of the tournament was between Todoroki and Awase from 1-B. The dark-haired boy made an immediate dash towards his opponent but before he could even cross half the battlefield Todoroki had sent a large iceberg at him, encasing him and covering a quarter of the stadium. Izuku watched the match and took notes, mostly about Todoroki, from his brief observation he could tell that Todoroki had used his left hand to defrost himself as he left.

Izuku continued to make notes as he watched the next matches. Kaminari lost to Shiozaki from 1-B when he overused his quirk while his opponent used her vine-like hair as a shield. Iida won his match but only after Mei Hatsume from the support course had used him as an advertisement for her gadgets for a solid ten minutes. Ashido won her match by dodging Aoyama's laser by sliding on her acid while getting close enough to deliver a punishing uppercut. Tokoyami ended his fight with Yaoyorozu quickly by pushing her out of bounds with his quirk 'Dark Shadow'. The seventh match ended in a tie when Kirishima and Tetsutetsu knocked each other out at the same time after repeatedly throwing hay-makers at each other.

The final match of the first round was between Uraraka and Bakugo, Izuku headed down to the prep rooms hoping to see his friend before her match. He arrived at prep room two and walked into Uraraka and Iida talking, they both turned towards him as he walked through the door.

"You might know, would Bakugo go easier on a female opponent?" Iida asked, directing his question towards Izuku.

"No, he won't. Everyone here is giving their all to be number one and achieve their dreams, so I don't think he'd go easy on you. Anyway, I've got a couple of strategies that could help you against Bakugo, if you want them." Izuku replied while holding out his notebook for Uraraka to read.

"Thanks for the offer but I think this is something I have to do on my own. Everyone is fighting with their futures in mind, everyone's a rival right now." Uraraka then left sporting a determined look.

Izuku and Iida made their way back to 1-A's viewing box, as they were walking Iida asked Izuku for his opinion of the upcoming match to which he replied, "She's got a really bad match up. Uraraka's quirk would work better against a close-combat fighter like you or Kirishima, unfortunately, Bakugo can use his explosions at a longer range so she's immediately at a disadvantage. She could win this fight but Bakugo isn't going to give her many openings and even if she does use her quirk on him he can still manoeuvre mid-air."

Iida turned to his classmate, somewhat impressed by his analysis of the situation, "It is unfortunate that Uraraka's match is so unfavourable. The same could be said for your match against Todoroki since he's a long-range quirk user." The duo then took their seats in the viewing box right as Uraraka's match was announced.

Neither opponent moved for a couple of seconds, clearly exchanging words before their match. Uraraka moved first, darting towards Bakugo, he set off an explosion as she got closer. She managed to dodge the blast which created a cloud of smoke around the two combatants. Uraraka's next move was to remove her jacket and float it through the smoke as a distraction while she tried to get closer to Bakugo.

She was just about to touch him when he set off another explosion, sending her flying backwards and destroying some of the arena in the blast. Uraraka quickly scrambled to her feet and charged back at the boy, unfortunately, he was ready and sent her back with another fiery blast. She continued charging and being repelled for another minute or so, scrapes and burns marking her skin.

Meanwhile, some members of the crowd were beginning to get uncomfortable watching this one-sided match. One Pro Hero in the audience began criticising Bakugo stating that if he was so much stronger than her he should just throw her out of the ring and that this isn't how a hero is supposed to act and finishing his speech by shouting, "Stop toying with the poor girl!"

This angered Aizawa and he elbowed his co-host, Present Mic, when he went to agree. Aizawa began berating the audience member telling him to look for another job and that Bakugo is acknowledging Uraraka's strength by not being careless and as such has recognised her as a worthy opponent.

Aizawa's words proved true when Uraraka stood before Bakugo with a determined look on her scratched-up face. She then released her quirk. Izuku noticed that when Uraraka was charging she stayed low to the ground causing Bakugo's blasts to break up the terrain. She then used the smoke from the explosions as a cover to touch the broken ground and send slabs and shards of concrete floating into the air.

The concrete projectiles were all released simultaneously, falling like a deadly rainfall of stone. It seemed like Uraraka had won as the rocks continued to fall, gaining speed and getting closer to their target. Uraraka charged again, hoping that the distraction of her improvised meteor shower would give her an opening to use her quirk on him.

Bakugo raised his right arm and braced it with his left before letting out a massive explosion, easily three times the size of the one that he used in the 2v2 training against Izuku. The blast engulfed the projectiles and either pulverised them or scattered them away from the arena. The blast also took Uraraka of her feet and flying backwards onto the ground. She fought her way back to her feet, began to charge forward before collapsing face-first into the ground ending the match and making Bakugo the victor.

Izuku made his way down to the prep room as his match with Todoroki was approaching and as he passed the stairs he saw Bakugo. He was going to ignore his former bully but Bakugo spoke up first, "You suggested that didn't you?! That self-sacrificing scheme of hers, you caused me a lot of trouble out there."

"I didn't, that was all Uraraka so if it was a lot of trouble for you that was her messing with you." Izuku then stormed off not wanting to speak to Bakugo and hoping to catch Uraraka before his match.

He opened the door to Prep room 2 to see Uraraka sitting alone at one of the tables. She looked up as the door opened and put on a large smile before saying, "Guess I lost. I just got carried away at the end when I thought I could win."

Izuku looked a little dumbfounded at how upbeat she could be after such a hard-fought loss, "Uraraka... are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm healing bit by bit, so my stamina doesn't get drained. Just these little scrapes left," She motioned to her bandages on her face and arms. "But Bakugo's just so strong, I couldn't put a scratch on him. I lost but I won't lose again. Guess I just gotta try harder next time."

"That's not what I meant." Izuku then heard Present Mic start announcing the next fight, his. "I've got to go, wish me luck."

"Yeah... good luck," Uraraka answered slightly awkwardly. People couldn't usually read her so well when she hid her emotions. She then received a phone call from her Dad and immediately felt her emotions well up and tears fall from her eyes. Oncer her call ended she made her way up to the viewing area in time to see Izuku and Todoroki's match begin.

While Uraraka was on the phone Izuku made his way towards the arena. He was stopped when a large man stepped out around a corner. Izuku looked up at the man, seeing a blue costume with literal fire coming off it as well as a beard made of fire on his face.

"Hey. There you are. Either use your quirk against Shoto or forfeit the match, he's not here to waste time he has a duty to surpass All Might," the pro hero Endeavour said.

Izuku face changed from one of shock to a more determined expression before he spoke back to the man before him. "I have no intention of forfeiting the match." He then continued walking down the tunnel and onto the stage. Izuku and Todoroki stood on their respective sides of the arena, staring each other down.

"Both of these competitors have won top marks in this festival so far! But there's only room for one of these greats in the ring, its... Todoroki vs Midoriya!" Present Mic announced.

The yell of start came from Present Mic and Izuku sprinted forward as fast as he could. Hoping to close the distance between them before Todoroki could use his quirk. Shards of ice erupted from Todoroki covering the arena, Izuku dodged as best he could but a couple of the shards slashed into his skin. He continued sprinting forward and vaulted over some ice to deliver a strong kick to Todoroki's side.

Todoroki stumbled from the kick and used a wall of ice to stop himself from going out of bounds. Izuku followed after him ready to deliver another blow only for a wall of ice to smash into him head-on. Izuku pulled himself off the floor, aching from the hit. He got his bearings and found Todoroki moving around the wall of ice into the centre of the ring. Izuku lunged forward again, knowing that if he gave his opponent any time he would be encased in ice and lose.

Izuku had almost made it to Todoroki when another wall of ice slammed into him and pushed him back into the previous wall. Both walls shattered in the impact and Izuku dropped to the floor battered. Izuku forced himself to his feet again and noticed that Todoroki was shivering and had frost covering his right side. He lunged forward again and threw a couple of punches at Todoroki.

Todoroki dodged the first but got hit by the second, his reactions being slowed by the frost. Izuku dove forward, tackling him around the waist and slamming him to the ground, "You're shivering Todoroki. Why go that far? You've overused your quirk, there's only so much cold you can bear. Why not use your left side to thaw yourself out?"

Todoroki pushed Izuku off of him before scrambling to his feet. Izuku also got to his feet and started swinging more punches at Todoroki, "Everyone is giving it their all, to win... to achieve their goals. To make it to the top. And you're only using half your power... come at me with everything you've got."

"What are you planning? Did my bastard of a father pay you off or something?!"

Todoroki sprinted forward, angered by Izuku's words. When he got close enough he went to slam his right foot down to use his quirk but was interrupted by a sucker-punch to the stomach. He doubled over in pain and stumbled back away from his opponent. He sent another volley of ice at Izuku but he quickly dodged it. "It's not just you that's slowing down. Your ice is weaker too," Izuku said.

Todoroki sent another wall of ice at Midoriya. It moved slower than the others and when it got close enough Izuku punched it, a chunk shattered off with the impact. Within another few hits, enough of the wall was broken for Izuku to climb through. His hands were bloody and bruised and some of his fingers were most likely broken.

Meanwhile, standing off to the side of the arena, Cementos radioed to Midnight, "Should I stop the match? Seems like Midoriya's going all out because he knows he can be healed. And he's not even feeling the pain he's in because his adrenaline's pumping. But those injuries, a single healing session won't be enough for a full recovery... even if he wins here, he'll be in no shape for the next match!"

Up in the commentator's booth, Aizawa had his own thoughts about Izuku's actions, 'He's not just blindly going wild out there. In order to win, this is the best strategy for him at this point. Even if he does know he can be healed, putting himself through all that pain takes a hell of a lot of guts."

Back in the arena, Todoroki was continually throwing walls of ice at Izuku who in turn was kicking and punching his way through them in an effort to get closer to his enemy.

"Why are you going this far?" Todoroki asked after Izuku smashed his way through another wall of ice.

"I'm just trying to exceed expectations!" Midoriya yelled back as he dashed forward. "The first Quirkless Hero! That's what I want to be. I'm giving it everything I've got." He got close to Todoroki and shoved him back, pain spiking in his wrists as he did. "Your experiences... your determination, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like but if you become number one without giving it you're all then I don't think that you're serious about denying him everything."

Todoroki stood still, his mind racing threw memories of his childhood; of the torment, his mother and he went through. Midoriya's shout of "Your power is your own!" caused another memory to flood to his mind, a simple memory of watching TV with his mother. An interview with All Might talking about how quirks are passed from parent to child but that's not the only thing that matters. He then remembered his mother's words, "You want to be a hero, right? That's fine. You're not bound by his blood. You decide who you want to become."

The crowd grew silent as and inferno enveloped Todoroki, "I thought you wanted to win? So why are you trying to inspire me? Which one of us isn't taking this seriously now?"

I grin grew on Izuku's face as he muttered, "Incredible."

"What are you smiling about? With those wounds and this situation you know you can't win now." Todorki said.

Izuku knew he couldn't win, if it wasn't for Todoroki severely limiting himself he wouldn't have lasted this long but at least everyone would pay attention to this match. He charged towards Todoroki hoping that maybe if he was fast enough he could shove him out of bounds. As he got closer Todoroki shot a large wall of ice at him, forcing him to dodge right. He was at the edge of the arena now and Todoroki sent a column of fire towards him. His only options were to stand there and burn or dodge out of bounds and lose.

Cementos was already forming a wall in front of Midoriya when he stepped further right, crossing out of bounds and losing the match.

Present Mic announced, "Midoriya is out of bounds. Todoroki moves on to the third round!"

Now that the match had ended and his adrenaline went down Izuku felt the pain and exhaustion flood over him. He promptly passed out, collapsing to the grass and being taken to Recovery Girl's nurse's office.


	11. Hero Names

Izuku woke up to a bright light above him and the smell of medical-grade disinfectant assaulting his senses. He tried to sit up looking for Recovery Girl and immediately felt pain shoot across his chest. He looked down, surveying his injuries, his torso and arms were covered heavily in bandages. Izuku went to push his hair out of his eyes and was greeted by the sight of his hands wrapped by metres of white bandages.

"Don't move deary," Recovery Girl said from across the nurse's office as she hopped down from her stool. "I haven't been able to heal you yet because of your exhaustion."

She crossed the room, kissed Izuku's forehead activating her quirk and healing the worst of his injuries. Izuku quickly felt drowsy, leaning back on the bed before drifting to sleep. Izuku later woke up, the sports festival having long since finished, Recovery Girl allowed him to go home since school would be closed for a couple of days meaning he would have time to recuperate from his injuries.

Recovery Girl healed his broken ribs and did the best she could to heal his severely damaged hands but left the cuts and bruises to heal naturally, to teach him to be less reckless he supposed. Izuku spent the next couple of days resting and analysing the matches from the sports festival that he missed. Bakugo beat Kirishima by overwhelming his quirk with brute force. Todoroki beat Iida by freezing one of his engines after Iida had tried to throw him out of bounds with his 'Recipro Burst'. Bakugo then beat Tokoyami quickly due to Dark Shadow being weak to light.

The final round was between Bakugo and Todoroki, after a close match between Todoroki's Ice and Bakugo's explosions, Bakugo won as Todoroki went to use his fire quirk before he stopped fighting altogether. After blasting him out of the ring Bakugo charged down Todoroki, enraged by the fact that Todoroki won't use his fire against him. Midnight had to step in and use her quirk to knock out Bakugo. At the award ceremony, Bakugo had to be chained to the podium as he screamed about wanting a rematch and refusing to accept the win.

As he rode the train to U.A., his hood shadowing his face, Izuku read through the hero forums, many of the articles he read were about the powerful quirks showcased at the festival and who they might intern under. One article Izuku found was about the rumour of a quirkless student attending U.A. They were correct in their deduction that he was in fact the quirkless student, though many of the comments were disagreeing since a quirkless child couldn't have passed the entrance exam, and they definitely couldn't have placed so well in the sports festival. He had made it to the top 8 after all.

Some comments speculated about him having a mental quirk or a low-level physical enhancement quirk. And a large majority of the comments were arguing for him to be expelled if he was in fact quirkless. Their arguments ranging from patronising protection 'its too dangerous for a quirkless person to be a hero,' to stating he cheated using the examples of him using the scrap metal in the obstacle course and not having to rely on teamwork in the cavalry battle.

Izuku quickly put his phone away as he arrived at the station for U.A, he thought to himself as he walked towards the school, he needs to work harder. Obviously one day showing what he could do wasn't going to change anyone's minds but at least a few of them seemed nervous or angry which meant that they saw him as a threat, meaning he looked capable and strong.

As Izuku neared 1-A's classroom, he heard Iida shouting about being late as he ran past. He'd seen the news about Ingenium's injuries since he was attacked by the hero killer. Before he could ask though Iida spoke to him, a smile on his face.

"You needn't worry about my brother. I apologise if he or I caused you any undue concern."

Both boys then proceeded into the room hearing their classmates chattering about being recognised on their commutes. They found their seats just before Aizawa's voice broke through the noise, "Morning."

"Good to see your bandages off, Aizawa sensei." Tsuyu said.

"The old lady's treatment was excessive. But nevermind that. We've got hero informatics class. And a special one at that." Aizawa paused to rub his eye as the students began thinking about the class being about boring hero laws. "You'll be coming up with your hero aliases."

The room exploded in cheers.

It quieted down as Aizawa spoke again, "But first, concerning the draft picks I mentioned the other day. It's based on who the pros think will be ready to join the hero workforce after another two or three years of experience. It's a way for them to show interest in your futures, but there's time for their interest to wane before you graduate. Any and all offers can be arbitrarily revoked. It happens quite often."

"So if wee picked now, that just means there'll be higher hurdles in the years to come?" Toru asked.

"Yes. Now here're the complete draft pick numbers," Aizawa said as the board behind him displayed a number next to everyone's names. Everyone who made it to the third event was on the board with at least a couple of picks except Izuku. Uraraka had 20, Kirishima had 68 but both Bakugo and Todoroki had a couple thousand next to their names. "There's typically more of a spread. But our top two stole most of the spotlight."

Everyone began chatting about the number of picks everyone got. "With that settled, whether you were picked or not. You will all have a chance to work alongside the pros. It's true that you all have already experienced more than most, but seeing the pros in action and taking part yourselves will still be worthwhile training."

"That's where our hero names come in," Sato shouted.

"This is really getting fun," Ochaco said.

"They're only tentative, but you still want to pick something appropriate-" Aizawa said before he was cut off.

"Or else you'll know true hell!" Midnight yelled as she stepped through the door and cracked her whip. "The name you pick now may be what the world ends up calling you. That's happened to plenty of pros out there."

"Yes. True enough," Aizawa agreed. "And Midnight here will be assessing the sensibility of the names you pick. What future do you see for yourself? the name you choose will bring you ever closer to cementing a certain image... because names are capable of reflecting one's true character."

Everyone began brainstorming their hero names. Meanwhile, Izuku was taking Aizawa's words to heart. What future do you see for yourself? Izuku thought about that question thoroughly; 'I could be an underground hero, like Aizawa, taking down villains at night and being unknown to the public. Or I could help organises and strategies teams of heroes like Sir Nighteye, All Might's former sidekick. I could even join a team and help support others in fights and rescue scenarios.'

While Izuku could see himself doing all of those things and being almost any kind of hero, except a heavy hitter with a strong quirk, that's not what he wanted to be. With his mind made up Izuku walked to the front of that class after Iida who displayed the name 'Tenya'.

He turned his board around and displayed the words 'The Quirkless Hero: Zero' written in messy print due to his bandaged hands. There were a few murmurs within the class and Midnight simply asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I thought about it and I realised that I would probably make a better underground hero like Aizawa sensei." Hearing his name Aizawa unzipped the top of his sleeping bag to hear what his student had to say. "Taking down villains stealthily in one on one combat that I can control would make more sense for me due to not having a quirk to rely on." Izuku looked up at the crowd of his peers, his expression; pure determination. "But that's not the type of hero I want to be. I want to be a hero on the front lines, in the eyes of the public. I want everyone to know my name and to know what it stands for. I want villains and heroes alike to see my name, to know that I have no quirk and that I need no quirk.

I want to be an example for every child told they couldn't achieve their dreams because of how they were born. And I want to be the type of hero I needed growing up.

I will be the first Quirkless Hero!"

Finishing his speech Izuku looked around the room, at the faces of his classmates. Some were bored or whispering about his speech. Bakugo looked angry but simple sneered at him. The ones that really caught his eye were Uraraka, Iida, Tsuyu, Kirishima and surprisingly Todoroki. They each had varying emotions on their face though all seemed positive if not a little muted in Todoroki's case.

After everyone picked their hero names Aizawa announced that they had a 20-minute break before their next lesson where they would be receiving their Internship picks. Izuku got up and headed to the door, hoping to get some fresh air after his declaration. He might have gained more confidence since Middle school but standing in front of his peers and announcing his plan for the future was nerve-racking and had taken a lot out of him.

He made his way onto the courtyard behind U.A's main building and sat on a wall, watching students move too and fro. Almost as soon as he had calmed his nerves and got his breathing under control, Izuku was surrounded by familiar faces. Uraraka sat on the wall next to him and leaned into his side saying, "That was so cool. Your speech was super inspiring."

Iida and Tsuyu joined them on the wall and Kirishima shouted something about his hero name being really manly as he made his way to the cafeteria. Izuku enjoyed the company from who he now realised were first real friends. They were discussing each other's hero names; Izuku was commenting on how Tsuyu's name 'Froppy' would make her really approachable and popular with kids, when Todoroki walked over.

"Midoriya, can I speak with you for a minute?" Todoroki asked.

"Uh. Yeah sure," Izuku replied before turning back to the others sat on the wall, "I'll meet you guys back in class."

Izuku and Todoroki headed away from the others and into an alleyway, away from prying eyes. They stood there for a moment in awkward silence before Todoroki began to explain why he asked to talk. He told Izuku about his parent's quirk marriage, facilitated by his father's wealth. He spoke about his childhood, being raised for the sole purpose of beating All Might. And he told him about his mother, who scarred his face and was locked in a mental hospital by his father.

Throughout all of this Izuku stayed quiet, allowing Todoroki to vent his thoughts and emotions. Some of what Todoroki told him, Izuku had figured out; mostly his 'purpose' to beat All Might and his choice to not use his fire. The rest was new to Izuku but it wasn't until Todoroki thanked him that he was surprised. Apparently Todoroki had remembered some memories during their match. Memories that had long since been forgotten, locked away within his brain. It was these memories that drove Todoroki to visit his mother.

The bell rang and both Todoroki and Izuku rushed back to class. They were each handed a folder with their internship picks. The students that didn't receive any were instead given a list of 40 agencies willing to take interns. Izuku studied through the list he was given, marking off heroes that he would benefit from interning with and crossing off heroes that relied too heavily on their quirks since he wouldn't learn as much from them.

By the end of the day's lessons, Izuku had narrowed his list down to 3 heroes; Stubborn a hero who's quirk gives them nearly impenetrable skin, he tends to get villains to overuse their quirk and exhaust themselves trying to hurt him. So probably not a good idea to intern with a hero so reckless, especially if I don't want Recovery Girl to kill me, Izuku thought. He crossed him off the list.

The second Hero was Twindril, her quirk gives her two prehensile tendrils that come from her shoulder blades. She's primarily a rescue hero but since her tendrils can't lift much more than a normal person I could learn the best ways to be useful in a rescue scenario, Izuku's thoughts continued.

The final name on his list was Gunhead, His quirk 'Gatling' lets him fire bullets made from keratin out of his arms. He mostly uses it for suppressive fire or in conjunction with martial arts, it would be useful to learn more martial arts, Izuku's inner monologue carried on. Izuku then thought of another hero that fights quirkless, Eraserhead. Aizawa's quirk only lets him level the playing field, everything else he does essentially quirkless.

When class ended Ochaco came over to Izuku's desk to ask who he was going to intern with. Out the corner of his eye Izuku saw Aizawa about to leave the classroom, he interrupted Ochaco, "Sorry Uraraka. I need to ask Aizawa sensei something. I'll be back in a minute and we can walk to the station, yeah?"

He didn't wait for a reply, rushing out the classroom and chasing Aizawa down the corridor towards the Teacher's lounge. He caught up to him just before he entered, "Aizawa sensei. I have a question."

Aizawa just stared at him, waiting for the question.

"I was thinking, since you have to fight without a quirk, that maybe you could um..." Izuku mumbled. "I mean could I... maybe."

"What?" Aizawa said, clearly fed up with this interaction.

"I was wondering if I could intern with you?" Izuku asked meekly.

"Sorry. I'm busy during your internship," Aizawa said, his voice losing the irritated edge it had before. "You'll have plenty of time to learn from me later in the year and I already have an intern. Plus you said you didn't want to be an underground hero."

"Yeah, I did," Izuku replied while scratching at his cheek. "Who's your intern anyway?"

"Don't tell anyone," Izuku nodded. "Remember Shinso from the sports festival? He has potential and I want to help him. If the entrance exams were more rational he'd already be in the hero course."

"Oh. That's great, his quirks really cool," Izuku said, his earlier disappointment no longer evident in his face. "I can think of plenty of situations where his quirk would be great, especially de-escalating conflicts."

"Good. And when you get back from your internship we could work out a deal," Aizawa said. "I'll train you afterschool alongside Shinso and you'll make a good sparring partner for him."

"Yeah, that sounds good."


End file.
